Communication breakdown sparks Schiphol airport hijack panic

Two Dutch F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept an Airbus passenger
plane after a breakdown in radio communications triggered a hijacking alert
at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Schiphol airport, near AmsterdamPhoto: EPA

6:42PM BST 29 Aug 2012

Flight VY 8366, operated by the budget Spanish Vueling carrier, was travelling with 183 passengers from Malaga to Schiphol when it lost radio contact with Dutch air traffic control.

“We received news that a plane headed for the airport was accompanied by two F-16 fighters and no contact was possible. We were obliged to activate certain security protocols, said Martijn Peelen, a Dutch police spokesman.

“There was no communication with the crew at all.”

A Nato official confirmed that, “the scrambling of fighter jets was part of a standard emergency procedure after the plane failed to communicate.”

After being escorted over Dutch airspace to an emergency runway at the airport, the Spanish airliner made a safe landing and was boarded by armed military police before the hijack alert was lifted.

The security alert came as part of Schiphol airport had already been evacuated with delays to flights after construction workers digging a trench unearthed a 1,100-pound German Second World War bomb. The bomb was safely removed by late afternoon.